1. Field of the Invention.
The invention is a device to train artillery crews who must learn the routine of loading and firing their weapon. Proper training requires that the environment simulate combat conditions as closely as possible. Actual combat rounds are expensive and increase the costs of training. Dummy rounds can be used to put crews through the motions of handling the weight, size, shape, etc., but lack the realism of recoil and counterrecoil barrel movement which crews must learn to cope with because that is what happens in combat. Ideally, crews in training should work with dummy rounds of realistic configuration, in artillery equipment items which move through the recoil and counterrecoil strokes as close to actual firing conditions as possible but without the expense of shooting up live ammunition.
2. Prior art.
Methods involve the defective techniques already outlined, often supplemented with the use of training films. Training films are almost always helpful, but will be more effective in conjunction with training exercises that closely approximate combat conditions. This becomes even more important when the need is to train gunners for tank combat, to which need the bounce, pitch, and roll of rough terrain is added along with all the other real life aggravations of gunnery crews adverted to above.